The commission’s review of the merger may include a consideration of how the deal affects smaller brokers, who don’t have the leverage to negotiate significant advertising discounts with the portal that larger firms can and have.

The book, which features insights gleaned from Zillow’s analytics division, is part of the portal’s ongoing game plan to become the go-to source of information for all things residential real estate.

On Monday, the portal announced the launch of a real estate “conversation” series to discuss issues surrounding housing during the runup to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. “Zillow’s Housing Roadmap to 2016″ will feature panel discussions hosted by Zillow in cities around the U.S. starting with Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21.

Murdoch is also somebody whose views often generate sensational headlines. Most recently, he became a trending topic after tweeting that while most Muslims may be peaceful, “until they recognize and destroy their growing jihadist cancer they must be held responsible” for actions like last week’s violence in Paris. Comedian Aziz Ansari and “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling were among those who publicly lambasted Murdoch.

The firm expects to receive listings directly from many more MLSs and brokers as it prepares for life after ListHub, which provided it with a large chunk of its for-sale listings. Its contract with the syndication platform is set to end on April 7, and it has created a “Data Dashboard” to help streamline the process for MLSs and brokers to setup a direct feed.

The support team will also help brokers and agents resolve issues surrounding their listings on the portal.

J.R. Gast

J.R. Gast, the former senior director of global support for online music service Rhapsody, has been hired to oversee the new client experience and account management team.

Zillow’s chief industry development officer’s (expensive) exile may end soon

Zillow is appealing a preliminary injunction issued last summer that has prevented its chief industry development officer, Errol Samuelson, from performing many of the duties that the company hoped he’d be performing when Samuelson jumped ship from realtor.com operator Move Inc. in March.

An anonymous group or individual held a t-shirt campaign last fall to show support for Errol Samuelson.

In fact, CEO Spencer Rascoff said in a Jan. 13 court filing, Zillow put Samuelson on leave as soon as the injunction was entered July 1. The injunction “effectively prevented Errol from performing any of the work that he was hired for” and made Samuelson “effectively useless to Zillow despite being one of our highest paid employees,” Rascoff said.

Zillow has nevertheless paid Samuelson $1.01 million in salary, bonus, and vested shares.